What people are saying about us...

AVL Today

​#JustOpened: 16 new businesses in Asheville

Who’s setting up shop + shutting their doors in a fast-growing city like Asheville is hard to keep up with. Here at the office, we often wonder: “What’s up with all of those businesses we announced last month?” So we figured our readers are wondering, too. Back in December we dished on 15+ businesses that were closing, soon-to-come, or had just opened– and for our fourth round of #Openings and #Closings, we’re here with alllll the updates.So, go ahead + bookmark this list for the next time you’re in the mood to try something new.

Ashvegas

Glen Merchant, Amy Zimmermann and Ryan McClenny hear the same joking question over and over: who thought it was a good idea to let people throw hatchets in a bar?The three co-owners of Axeville Throwing Club are quick to answer: their emphasis is on safety first and foremost, with Axeville as a destination to enjoy the art of throwing axes.Yes, there will be beer taps, a lounge area and a fun photo-op station complete with fake beards and axes. But the entrepreneurs say they’ve done everything they can to be sure patrons will have danger-free fun along Axeville’s 12 throwing lanes.“We’re not serving liquor. We’re not going to be open until 2 a.m. There’s fencing around every throwing lane. We’ve done our homework,” says Merchant.Anticipation has been building since last year, when the Axeville crew opened social media accounts and announced their location in the former Xcapades topless bar – information that set off another wave of joking, as well as a perfect hashtag: #axecapades. (Axeville is located at 99 New Leicester Highway, about half a mile from the road’s intersection with Patton Avenue.)Merchant, Zimmermann and McClenny have been working ever since to remake the space into a comfy space. The group faced a number of permitting and construction issues that have slowed them down. In addition to that, the crew has been holding down day jobs. Merchant does IT work for a local travel company, while McClenny is a senior production scheduler at Manual Woodworkers. Zimmermann’s extensive work experience is in special event production and social media marketing.

Asheville Citizen Times

You axed for it: Axeville Axe-Throwing Club will have axes, beer

​ASHEVILLE — When Axeville Axe-Throwing Clubopens in Leicester, it will have regulation targets and lanes, per the National Axe Throwing Federation.Yes, there is such a thing as the NATF, established just two years ago. But its existence supports one undeniable fact: ax-throwing bars are trending and, with them, ax-throwing leagues. Which of course begs the question: aren't alcohol and axes strange bedfellows? No more so than darts, said Axeville co-owner Glen Merchant, who describes ax throwing as what might happen if darts and bowling had a baby. "You have lanes, like in bowling, fencing on the side and, like darts, you're throwing something at a board," he said.Unlike a typical game of bar darts, however, Axeville employs a surprising — and comfortable — number of safeguards, including limiting the amount of alcohol participants can imbibe.Employees called "axperts" — which Merchant describes as "somewhat like babysitters" — will be stationed with each group of players to make sure things go smoothly, monitoring each pint purchased and sharing the formal rules of the game.The wooden ax-throwing lanes, designed to be visible from anywhere in the building, will protect spectators and players with high chain-link fencing, Merchant said, adding, "There's almost no way a hatchet can get loose."Roland Zilberman, an Axpert at Kick Axe, a Brooklyn-based ax-throwing bar. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)Axeville's owners, Merchant, his partner and cousin Ryan McClenny, and Merchant's girlfriend, event planner Amy Zimmermann, are careful to point out their venue is an ax-throwing club first. It's one that just happens to serve beer. "This is Asheville," Merchant said. "When I go to my barber, he has four taps. It's just expected you'll have beer wherever you go."But that hasn't stopped people — important people, like Axeville's CPA and attorney — from doing double takes, Merchant admitted. "Our attorney said, 'All I see are lawsuits.'"Ax-throwing classes have become a hit in New York and other parts of the country. Yes, people learn how to throw axes in a controlled, enclosed environment. Kick Axe is in Brooklyn, New York (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)But the owners will double down on diligence. This is a project they've sunk a lot of money into, after all. "Who would be dumb enough to open this business, put all this money in, and hope people will get hammered and start throwing axes at each other?" Merchant said. "That's a terrible business plan."Speaking of good points, these axes don't particularly need one to sink into their wooden targets, according to McClenny. "They don't need to be super sharp. The distance you are away to make a throw, plus the weight of the hatchet, does the majority of the work."Of note: these aren't the types of axes a lumberjack might use to fell a tree; they're more like short-handled hatchets. Players don't need to be lumberjack-sized, either, McClenny said. "This is not a power game. A lumberjack is not going to be any better at this than a 100-pound female."His wife, at 7 months pregnant, out-threw him, he admitted. "She was lobbing axes double-handed. This is a technique-based game."

​Asheville Citizen Times / Photos: Inside the new Axeville Throwing Club

Asheville Citizen Times ​

Food writer Mackensy Lunsford takes a stab at ax-throwing at new Axeville throwing club

The first time you throw an ax, it will most likely end in two different ways. There's the thud if you fail to connect, the ax clanging to the floor anticlimactically. But should that happen, the desired end will be more satisfying: the satisfying thwack of connection, the metal head embedding itself firmly in thick planks of pine.How to make that happen is a combination of footwork and, obviously, throwing skill, both of which go hand in hand. Then there's simply knowing how to handle an ax.Most Ashevilleans know how to handle an ax, Ryan McClenny told me.McClenny, with his cousin Glen Merchant and Amy Zimmermann, will open Axeville, Asheville's first ax-throwing club, on Leicester Highway sometime in mid-March.I like that McClenny takes for granted I fall in the comfortable-with-an-ax camp, even though it prevents me from bragging about my wood-chopping prowess (which I am instead choosing to do in this article).

WLOS Sports - Game Changer Segment

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — One of the first tools developed by early humans was a means to cut wood and hunt prey. Many Celtic tribes reportedly had axe-throwing competitions, but even through the founding of America axes continued to have a practical purpose. Lately, however, a new trend has been popping up in bigger cities across the country: axe-throwing bars. "There's something just primal about it," smiled Glen Merchant, co-owner of Axeville Throwing Club. "That thud appeals to everyone!"Axeville Throwing Club is the latest new thing on the WNC scene. Merchant and his girlfriend Amy bought the old Excapades building on Leicester Highway, along with Ryan McClenny and his wife.